NHL Confirms Hawks-Penguins Outdoor Game

The teams will battle as part of the NHL's "Stadium Series"

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Last month, reports surfaced that the NHL was planning a six-game “Stadium Series” of outdoor games for the 2013-14 regular season. On Wednesday, the league confirmed its ill-kept secret that one of those games would be a tilt between the Chicago Blackhawks and Pittsburgh Penguins at Soldier Field on March 5.

“We had a great experience with Wrigley,” NHL COO John Collins told Yahoo! Sports. “The ability to bring the Penguins into Soldier Field, another one of those iconic venues in Chicago, I think is just going to create an awful lot of enthusiasm and sets up to be just a fantastic event for us.”

The stadium, which houses the NFL’s Chicago Bears, has hosted another hockey event recently. In February, Notre Dame and Miami (OH) played as part of a doubleheader of college hockey at the venue, with Big Ten rivals Wisconsin and Minnesota rounding out the card. The games went off without a hitch and ended up drawing over 52,000 fans. Needless to say, the NHL is hoping that the Penguins-Blackhawks tilt will draw slightly more than that.

The league is expected to announce four more outdoor games, including tilts at Yankee Stadium, Dodger Stadium, and Rogers Place, in future days.